


Forlorn conclusions

by Daphne_Bassett



Series: Duty [2]
Category: Bridgerton (TV)
Genre: Multi, lots of sibling talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29464989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daphne_Bassett/pseuds/Daphne_Bassett
Summary: Daphne talks to her siblings about her marital problems. She doesn’t like what they say.
Relationships: Anthony Bridgerton & Daphne Bridgerton, Daphne Bridgerton & Eloise Bridgerton, Daphne Bridgerton/Simon Basset
Series: Duty [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164221
Comments: 16
Kudos: 49





	1. Chapter 1

“Why?” Eloise asked her when she finished. **  
**

Daphne shrugged. “I know not.”

It took her a moment to register her sister’s glare of disbelief.

“You mean you have never asked?”

“How am I to know he won’t just lie and deceive me again?”

Eloise pinched her nose, a thinly disguised gesture of aggravation that only served to aggrieve Daphne in turn.

“A lie by omission is still a lie.” It was an argument they had already.

“He informed you of his inability to have children.”

“He can have children! He chooses not to!”

“And why, pray thee sister, does he choose not to?”

Daphne looked away.

“Surely you must have some curiosity about the topic?” Eloise asked sarcastically.

“I tried asking him.” Daphne squirmed under her sister’s gaze. “Once. And he refused to discuss it. What more was I supposed to do?”

“Perhaps chosen to inquire as to his reasons _prior_ to destroying your union?”

“I did not destroy it. He did when he deceived me.”

“He never promised you children, Daphne. From what you’ve told me, it seems he was quite clear on the matter from the start. While you in turn-” Eloise bit her lip.

“In turn, I what?”

“It is of no import. Forget I said anything.”

“Oh no, Sister,” Daphne snapped. “You have been so eager with your opinions so far. Now is not the time to withhold them.”

Eloise made a face, and Daphne pushed back the dread that if her outspoken sister was reluctant to say this much, then she, Daphne, would surely regret hearing it.

“You told your husband that you were satisfied with your life as it was. As just you two. That was not true, was it?”

“It was. I meant it at the time. Before I realized that he had been deceiving me, withholding from me-”

“Did you?”

“I did.” Under her sister’s gaze, she looked away. “I believe that I did.”

Eloise shrugged. “I know little about marriage beyond what you have informed me. I know considerably less about the affairs of the heart between a man and a woman. But it seems to me, dear sister, that if you had been indeed satisfied with your life as it was, you won’t have seized the first opportunity to get with child. You most surely won’t have done at the risk of losing your husband’s affections permanently.”

Tears sprang in Daphne’s eyes. “I did not think I would lose them permanently. I did not-”

Eloise put an arm over her sister’s shoulder at once. “I did not mean my words to hurt you. Forgive me, Sister.”

“How can hold it against you for speaking the truth?” Daphne admitted. “In public, he puts on an act that all is well. But in private? His grace treats me like a stranger he shares housing with. Besides asking after my health, we no longer converse. Or have meals together. Or in anyway occupy each other’s company. He leaves…” She swallowed hard, this particular ache more painful than most. “The house at night, and returns in the early hours of the morning. I have no knowledge of where he spends his time or in whose company he keeps.”

“His grace is a man of honor. Surely, you cannot suspect-”

“How can I not? He had a reputation before we married, did he not? If he will not permit me to fulfil his needs, then what else is left? I can be naive about most matters, Eloise, but not that.”

Eloise shook her a little, exasperated. “Perhaps, Sister, you should do less forlorn conclusions to your husband’s motives, and do more inquiring at said husband. It seems obvious to me that most of your difficulties arise when you let your imagination run away with you!”

===

“Where do you go at night?”

She hadn’t meant to blurt out the question. She had planned on leading up to it. First by mentioning the luncheon by the visiting Earl, then requesting his attendance at a picnic with her family at the seaside. But after hours of tossing and turning in bed (because apparently a few weeks of sharing a bed with her husband had permanently rendered her unable to sleep alone peacefully), she had heard his footsteps, and she had launched herself out of her room to confront him.

He paused, blinking as if shocked at her appearance. She knew she must look a sight with baggy eyes and wild hair, and a belly that distorted her figure. She loved her pregnancy shape, the signs that her baby was growing healthy and strong. But she couldn’t help wondering how she looked like to him, this man who never wanted this for himself. How she compared to the women of easy virtue that threw themselves at him.

And why won't they? She thought, despairing, as she drank in the sight of her husband. He was so tall, his shoulders so broad. She ached to touch him, to put her hands on those shoulders, and feel herself become weightless as he swung her into his strong arms. His shirt was open, the cravat untied and she could peek at the muscles rippling over his smooth, dark skin. Her fingers twitched with the memory of touching him, being _allowed_ to touch him. It wasn't fair, she thought - and not for the first time - that Simon was so handsome. Even before their estrangement, in those halcyon days of their honeymoon when he was hers, she would sometimes wake up wondering that this was possible. That she was in his bed, and he was hers and she was his. 

The thought of another woman in his bed, of other hands touching him, made her sick with hurt and anger. 

“I did not think you concerned yourself about my whereabouts,” he said finally.

“Is this truly what our marriage will be for the future? You out all night to God knows where, with God knows whom!”

He blinked again, taken aback by her vehemence. A look of hurt crossed his face and she flinched. 

Then his lips thinned. “Good night, your grace.”

“Simon,” she said quickly, that moment of hurt haunting. “Simon!”

He slammed the door shut behind him.

====

“He stays at the club, and drinks for most of the night, and then a carriage takes him home. Alone. His company is most forbidding. When Will gives him an opening, he is at the ring, boxing.”

Daphne closed her eyes against the tears that filled them. She should have been relieved. She was relieved. But she was also reminded again that she had once more ascribed the worst possible motives to her husband, and hurt him.

_“Surely you must have some curiosity about the topic?”_

She remembered Eloise’s sarcastic words. Her sister had been right. Daphne hadn’t wanted to know why, she had been too angry. By the time she was willing to see past her anger, her husband was unreachable.

She remembered Mrs Colson’s words about his own mother. How she died during childbirth. Perhaps that was why-?

“Sister,” Anthony said. “If the Duke is mistreating you in anyway, you must tell me. He may be your husband, but you are still a Bridgerton.”

“I just accused my husband falsely of infidelity yet you assume that I am the one being mistreated?” Daphne snapped.

Anthony sat back in his chair. They were in their father’s - no, Anthony’s - office, sharing tea together. At least Anthony was. Daphne hadn’t been able to touch hers until she got her answer from Anthony and by now it was too late.

“I assumed that he made an error with you.”

There was something in his tone that caught Daphne’s attention. There it was - a flicker of guilt.

“Brother, I beg you, reassure me that you did not say that to His Grace’s face?”

Anthony said nothing. 

She clasped her hands together in her lap so she won’t give into the childish urge to hit her oldest brother. “Then I must thank you, Brother, for giving my husband more cause to hate me.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Daff!” Anthony snapped. “You may be at odds now, but surely he cannot- You are expecting a child for goodness’s sake.” Something in her face sobered him. “Sister,” he asked almost fearfully. “What did you do?”

She looked at her clasped hands, blinked hard against the tears that plagued her so much these days. “I cannot tell you, Brother.”

“Then… fix it, whatever it is.”

“I do not know how.”


	2. Chapter 2

He could hear her sobbing, each sound like a stab through his heart. He wanted to go to her, but devastation was like an anchor, rooting him to his seat. It was for the best, he told himself. This way he had managed to keep one vow. 

Simon woke up with a gasp, and he struggled with his sheets as if they strangled him.

The dream. It had felt so real. So vivid. Daphne on her knees, weeping, as her courses confirmed the absence of a child. He didn’t realize he was moving until he did. Out the door and across the hall, and into the Duchess’s chamber. He was standing by the foot of her bed before he realized what he was doing. What he had been propelled to do. 

The sight of her still figure, her chest heaving with the gentle rhythm of sleep, one arm around her round belly, brought him to his knees with profound relief.


End file.
